Barbara Fallon

Canada Research Chair in Child Welfare

Tier 2 - 2017-11-01
Renewed: 2021-04-01
University of Toronto
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council


barbara.fallon@utoronto.ca

Research involves

The collection and sharing of reliable, valid Canadian and provincial data to provide an evidence-based understanding of the trajectories of children and families in the child welfare system.

Research relevance

Despite repeated calls for systematic evaluation, services to maltreated children and their families in Canada continue to be driven by perceptions about need — not by evidence of service effectiveness. Notwithstanding a lack of research, child welfare services are one of the fastest growing social service delivery sectors in Canada.

Research summary

Although child welfare services are one of the fast-growing social service sectors in Canada, we still lack comprehensive research about how to best to help children and families. For more than 20 years, Dr. Barbara Fallon has been working to bridge this knowledge gap.

As Canada Research Chair in Child Welfare, Fallon is focusing on two research areas. She and her research team are collecting timely, relevant data to address child welfare practice and policy needs. They are also taking a transdisciplinary approach to inform policy development and research for children. By engaging research users and stakeholders, Fallon’s research will continue to bridge gaps between research, practice and policies in the field of child welfare.